While Morton’s Fork wore out his welcome at Godolphin, the 6-year-old son of Ad Valorem (USA) showed he has plenty left to offer by giving his new owners a real Christmas gift after he proved much the best in Saturday’s Listed ATC Christmas Cup (2400m) at Randwick.
Earlier in his career, Morton’s Fork was mixing it with the likes of Russian Revolution and Hey Doc but he only had the Group II MRC Sandown Guineas to his credit and that was over three years ago. He saw off John O’Shea, Darren Beadman and James Cummings at Godolphin before being purchased by clients of Warwick Farm-based trainer Richard Litt.
The 6yo gelding rang up number one at his fifth start or his new owners. With Glen Boss in the saddle, Morton’s Fork showed the mile and a half was no problem by coming from well back to hit the line strongly to defeat High Bridge (GB) (Monsun) by one and three-quarter lengths with Miss Moana (Uncle Mo) a half-length back in third.
With his second stakes success, Morton’s Falk advances his overall record to 7 wins, 7 seconds and 5 thirds from 40 starts with earnings of $820,470.
“We’re very proud of him, he is a stable favourite and even this morning my kids were feeding him a bag of carrots,” Litt said.
“The four weeks between runs going into the 2000m the other day, he was a bit lazy but he came here today nice and fresh and happy.
“Our stable is a bit like a rest home. We get all the old ones but we know they have got ability when we buy them and it’s just doing something a bit different with them and they are thriving. He has never really put in a bad run.”
The son of Ad Valorem (USA) is a three-quarter brother to the talented Pied A Terre who won four of his 9 starts in Australia highlighted by the Group II Autumn Stakes and was runner-up in the Group II Blamey Stakes won by Green Moon and the Listed Hawkesbury Guineas won by Free Wheeling.
Morton's Fork is the second foal of the Lonhro mare Dilemmas who failed to win in five starts.
Like Morton’s Fork, Dilemmas has also been moved on by Godolphin who sold her to Dalama Holdings for $10,000 at the 2014 Inglis Easter Broodmare Sale.
Dilemmas is a granddaughter of the top-class Shavano Miss a 5-time stakes-winner including a pair of Group II's.
The daughter of Lonhro has a yearling colt by Hinchinbrook and was covered by Epaulette last year.
Morton’s Fork is one of 14 stakes-winner for Danzig’s dual Group 1 winner Ad Valorem (USA) who stands at Cangon Stud at a fee of $4,400.
